Question for Private School Teachers

[MeThinksTime]

I've been in state for 15+ years. I came into teaching to 'make a difference', particularly from a social justice perspective. But we all know teaching isn't what is used to be. I need a fresh challenge. I went to a private school myself, and am now considering a switch into the independent sector.

Some questions for you:
How do you find teaching in a private school? What are the challenges?
How do you find the commitment expectations - particularly if you have young children?
What % reduction do you get in fees?
Anything else I should know?

Thank you for your time!

A lot of it will depend on the kind of private school you're looking at. If you go into a really financially secure large indy school, you're likely to have a much easier time of it than if you go to a smaller, more vulnerable one - where there's less job security, they've either left or are going to leave the TPS, lower salaries, fee reductions for staff are less generous or nonexistent, teachers end up doing a lot of admin work etc because of a lack of support staff.

Generally private schools will expect more of you in terms of extra curricular contributions etc, and their days are longer, but holidays are longer and you may have reduced teaching hours (and fewer children to teach) - again, very school dependent. There may be more 'perks' eg free lunch. Behaviour much less likely to be an issue and class sizes are smaller, although you're more likely to encounter entitled parents - most are lovely, but you do get a few who aren't! You're also more likely to be used for cover in your PPA time, as many indy schools don't have cover supervisors.

Basically, swings and roundabouts, but if you're feeling jaded it's definitely worth looking into a move to the private sector for something different!

Thank you @doglover90

I agree with everything that the above poster said. Would probably say more than a few parents are "entitled", especially if they have several DCs in the school. The amount they are paying in fees makes them feel they have a right to throw their weight around.

You might have a better response if you post this in the Staffroom.

Oh, and there's little consideration given to work/life balance in term time. Last autumn we had a Y11 parents' evening, Open Morning (on a Saturday) and a HOD meeting within six days. OTOH, I'm on holiday already 😎

Thanks @AttractiveAlpaca - like you say, swings and roundabouts. Do you find the general attainment of students is higher, and therefore more pushing for grade 7+ than trying to scrap children through a 4.

What are you thoughts about things like the IB? Again, pros and cons? Thank you!

Still pressured. It different pressures. Behaviour is substantially better. Parental expectation is high and they Constantly email you or the head if they notice anything....

Can I add my thoughts as a parent in a local indie? I would agree that we have higher expectations but most of us do respect teachers' time and our school is very strict on not contacting teachers outside of core hours of 8.30-5pm. If we contact outside of this time then the school say clearly that we shouldn't expect a reply.
Poor behaviour from students is cracked down on by the school and there is a respectful relationship between students and teachers.
I would say that teachers are very much expected to toe the school line ie attend all open days, interact with prospective new pupils and parents, represent a positive school image etc but they do all seem genuinely happy in their jobs and none walk around looking harassed or stressed.
There is a heavy pastoral emphasis at our school so my DD has a Tutor and Housemistress as well as her teachers and she sees the Tutor once a week for a 1-2-1 as well as the Housemistress every day. I would imagine this eats into non-teaching time for Tutors.

My friend who teachers at a private school recently said 'it's half the number of kids but double the parents 🫣'

@threefiftysix your friend has nailed it 😂! I'm stealing that for myself.

OP, my school has struggled financially since the 2008 crash and very nearly closed at one point. The pupil mix is now predominantly children with EHCPs (guaranteed money) and 'first time buyers'. Lots of pressure to get grade 4s so the kids can go to agricultural college / do business BTechs. The parents of the more able kids tend to be the most realistic, probably because they are themselves educated & know much of the motivation has to come from the child rather than external pressure.

OP my local indie had more than 90% of GCSE grades 7,8,9 - so it depends on which school!

Helpful comments thanks so far!

@MeThinksTime I would think you would need to chose the school carefully, as with any school. Ours is a selective but not overly academic local indie which largely caters for farming families + forces + a decent % of Asian borders. There are currently zero staff vacancies which I would think is a good reflection of the school. Big emphasis on the family feeling.

Taught at a big, prestigious private prep in London - it was a totally different job to in state. Some days my teaching finished at 10am and some days were a half day- longer days but never taught the full day. I suspect this is different in smaller schools with fewer specialist teachers. In my school there were significant expectations on our free time - we were expected to attend socials with parents, respond to parent emails almost immediately (even during the teaching day - e.g. they would be asking a question about a club that day). In state primary the parents didn't even have my direct email! I felt like I spent more time organising my class's correct uniform, kit, making sure their ties were straight for church etc than I did actually teaching! It would've been a fun and social place to work if I'd been young and child free but hard work combining with family life.

I did it for 5 years. Challenges were that they didn't have quite enough work for me so I had to resist them filling up my timetable with random stuff (obviously that happens in state too but small private schools are under pressure to offer a wide range of subjects meaning they can end up with a fair few part timers). They were pretty nice to their staff BUT there was a bit of a paranoid atmosphere as they'd almost always take students' word over yours and parent complaints (however daft) were taken very seriously. This got worse as time went on because of the post Covid financial pressures.

Expectations of extras/evenings/clubs/trips were reasonable, but you do have to be careful of large boys' schools where everyone' supposed to coach sport. Also boarding schools.

A major downside was they were "consulting" to leave TPS and while we fought it off, it's going to happen eventually I expect.

There was some kind of staff fee discount but they weren't very transparent about it.

Schools vary enormously and the personality of the head and their right hand men/women matters a great deal.

The lunches were fantastic!

Oh, I forgot the massive amounts of cover and invigilation.

The spring and summer terms felt very short so it was no gained time and work work work but shut up shop beginning of July.

It took a bit of recovering from! And I used to have to rush the A-level syllabus like anything.

Behaviour was good but students would go straight to their parents or Head to moan about you and you weren't really allowed to tell them off.

Am finding state quite refreshing tbh.

Been in private sector all my career. Schools vary widely. I teach in a very academic place; lots of parental contact and pressure from the students. Many evenings taken up, sometimes at short notice. Classroom behaviour can still be a problem but it tends to be subtle stuff rather than overt. Paperwork is increasing rapidly (the way of the world) and new SLT are making the place seem more corporate than ever before. Still in TPS. 50% fees discount for staff kids.

I agree with all that has been said. In general I found it much easier. For me, having fewer students and no behavioural problems made a radical difference. I quite liked the entitled parents. It was nice to have engaged parents who cared! The 'extra time' for extra curricular activities was nothing in comparison to the hours I spent dealing with incidents in the state sector.

BUT, my experience of not just my school, but others too, was that standards were actually a bit shit. Things we took for granted in the state sector (like data tracking, AfL, etc.) were not embedded. I felt like staff were out of the loop and there was a lack of genuine accountability. It felt unorganised, inefficient, and a bit 1950s. For obvious reasons private schools don't tend to share resources with each other, and there is less staff movement. While that is good in some ways, it's not always a good sign when there are members of staff who've been there for 30+ years without meaningful CPD.

I love teaching in independent schools. We are much better resourced (eg practical equipment- I'm a science teacher). Smaller class sizes. Free meals (breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea), and it's very good food. More relaxed approach to ISI inspections (than Ofsted in state schools). Less rigid/prescriptive approach to pedagogy: we can all teach in our own way instead of having branded cookie-cutter powerpoints with learning objectives and targets... yuck.

But mostly - much, much better pay.

Downsides - yes, parents can be more difficult. And some leadership teams can be undermining of you in the face of parental complaints. You have to go through a bit of fire to prove yourself when you're new at the school (especially if young/inexperienced) because the parents don't trust you yet.

Higher expectations of subject knowledge, literacy/oracy etc. In other words if you don't express yourself well to parents, they'll make your life very difficult. It's partly this, I think, that means we don't have much demographic-diversity in independent schools: most teachers are from independent schools and russell group themselves.

But overall it's so worth it. Benefits far outweigh the challenges

Secondary school here.

When I worked in a state school I used to work 8:15-17:45 and around 4-5 hours every Sunday to catch up. This was a very nice outstanding school in London.

Now, I work around 8:15-17:00 no weekends, more holidays, nicer kids, amazing lunch.

The biggest difference for me is I need much less time to plan my lessons as I can print as much as I want and I know almost everything will work well.

The independent sector is changing very quickly. This includes the big names now.

It still depends on the school, but it is very difficult to know before you get there what kind of a place it is.

Indicators of decent treatment of staff in the independent sector are:

• still in the TPS
• a pay award this year of over 6%

You could also check the local press to see if staff have taken industrial action recently.

Don’t work for a for-profit. Those places are the pits (even if they seem prestigious: run a mile!).

It's also worth a browse of the Good Schools' Guide and ISI reports.

Oh! And get the accounts from Companies' House. There's a surprising amount of free information available.

That is very good advice.

I was in a secondary independent boarding school. It's a mixed bag. They expect their pound of flesh - interminable hours supervising prep or doing weekend duties - starting at 8.30 and finishing at 4.15, followed by meetings and/or training or duties. The behaviour is not perfect by any means, with a special sort of arrogance only children of the filthy rich can display. Constant (paranoiac) assessment to the point where the pig is weighed more than taught.

However, the plus side is the teaching. Once you have a good reputation, classes can be a joy. A level in particular was superb fun - teaching pre-Oxbridge students, pushing them as far as possible. More creativity and autonomy, if you have a decent head of department. Lots of opportunities for fun enrichment classes. Good food. Jollies and extras, like gifts, at Christmas.

I found parents almost always lovely - genuinely supportive - especially if you are one of the good teachers.

Finishing at the end of June and three weeks at Christmas were definitely wonderful, though they squeezed every drop out of you in term time.

Agreed with a PP that you need to watch the pay and conditions. The school I was in was led by people who hated the unions and were ruthless in staff purges and redundancy procedures. There was some extremely poor, even bullying, management at times (though sadly this seems like a feature of so many schools, state or private).